Medi@terra festival/ Call for papers and projects

MEDI@TERRA 05
7th INTERNATIONAL ART AND TECHNOLOGY FESTIVAL
7 - 11 DECEMBER 2005

GAMES AND REALITY

The game is part of our lives; it is actually our first contact , after our birth, with the world outside. It is the first step of “education” for a new member of a group. The game is not a human feature only. A cat before eating its prey, a half dead animal, plays with it or offers it to her children to play and train them in hunting.

The points of discussion for computer games that multiply more and more in our days do not make an appearance for the first time. They are only augmented and presented in their new digital form that is a respond to the digital society producing them.

Because finally the main hero of the games stays always the player, who is the persecutor and the victim at the same time, the hero and the spectator, the master of the game but also its prisoner.

No other medium could better describe the phase the new century is going through, other than video and computer games.

Read below and imagine the incidents of the last five years:
Innumerous short links define the rules of the games that change as a rolling mass. Unexpected events change the flow of defined incidents. Anyone can become a hero; he/she does not need to be intelligent, he/she just need to know the operation, or even easier to hold the joystick. All the other are only a matter of time.

The game then becomes a serious issue. Who faces better the current conditions, a trained kid that knows how to fly with a Boeing 707, to dive with a bathyscaph or to change the outcome of battle of Marathon, or the terrified parent who does not leave the child to play his favorite games, but asks for his/her help to set his mobile?

In today's games all new acquired knowledge and technology is encompassed. From the developed interactive interfaces and the 3D animations of the mobile technology (mobile gaming) to the use of smart agents and the Artificial intelligence in games.
The modern mathematics besides were developed by studying the games [theory of Paigneia]. By examining games, we face the reality, we think of versions of the future, we resist.

We make known this new art to the level we should, we promote the creators, the protagonists in the area. We present and evaluate the new artistic trends and aesthetics.

Medi@terra 05 is occupied seriously with games and pays attention to those who play with reality and those who examine the game seriously.

Maybe one of the most difficult times in our lives is when the game stops being the most serious occupation and the education of the language takes its place, possibly the most difficult task as from the minute we learn well its codes, we realise that some people "play" with us.

Resist to reality when they play with you
Resist to the game that resembles reality

Create your own game and send it to us to present it.
Get in touch with other people with the same concerns.
Present your point of view.
Explore your creativity and your imagination.
Play with the reality with no borders.
Send your ideas to the festival.

For Fournos team
Manthos Santorineos




CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

“Games or Reality: the Challenge of Digital Culture”
Conference

The Conference “Games or Reality: the Challenge of Digital Culture” focuses on four Subject Areas covering a wide range of crucial issues and questions concerning Games and their position in Digital Culture, studied from the Observers’ as well as from the Players’ point of view: in Subject Area Α the Socio-Political, Psychological, Cognitive and Philosophical aspects of Game are analysed; in Subject Area B the influences of Game in Art and the Game as 21st century’s New Art are studied; in Subject Area C Technologies and Techniques that develop or are developed by the Game are presented; and finally Subject Area D concerns the emergence and growth of the New Economy of Games defining its impact in Art and Society of the 21st century;

The subject areas that constitute the four basic axes of the Conference are described by indicative topics around which the speakers are invited to communicate.

A. The borders between Games and Reality
(When Games influence Reality)

a. The World of Game
> Real Games - Virtual Life
> Net-Games and Virtual Communities: a utopian space
> Social and Anti-Social games
> MUDs and Net-Individualism
> Game and Communication Utopia
> Collective and Individual representation of the World through the Game

b. The Identity of the Player - The Identity of the Digital World Citizen
> The Embodiment and Dis-Embodiment of the Player and the Game
> Virtual Bodies, Games and Gender
> The avatars do we choose and the avatars do we create (or they create for us)
> Games and Identity
> The Psychology of the Player

c. Serious Games
> Game Politics and politic propaganda in Games
> Simulation and Game environments for learning and training
> Scientific and Military Games
> Freedom, Choice and Censorship in Games
> Games and Cognitive Sciences


B. The Game in Art and the Art of Game
(The Game as 21st century’s New Art)

a. The Game as a new field for artistic expression
> Game based artworks
> Art criticizing Games
> The Integration of Game in Art
> The Aesthetics of the New Media and “art games”
> "Commercial" Game as Art

b. Interactive Narratives and Multi-scenarios: the New Storytelling…
> Audiovisual and Narrative aspects of Games
> Linear and non-linear narratives in art games, and in commercial Games
> Multi-scenario strategies
> From image to text and from text to image

c. Game Aesthetics: the emergence of a New Art
> Game as a New Form of Art and the new Aesthetics of Digital Games
> Artistic expression through Game
> Aesthetics of New Interactive Media
> Aesthetics of Multi-centric Narratives


C. Game Technologies
(Game Evolution through Technology and Technology Evolution through Game)

a. History and Evolution of Game Technologies
> Game and “traditional” audiovisual media
> From 2D to 3D Game
> Mobile gaming: mobile phones and the evolution of Games
> Artificial Intelligence Techniques and Intelligent Games
> Integration of New Technologies in Game
> New Technologies development for Game

b. "Building" a Game: Design and Game Development
> From conception to production
> Creating a Game scenario: narrative techniques for multimedia/hypermedia
> Aesthetics and Techniques for the creation of Virtual Worlds
> 3D Game in the Web
> Architecture and Game Design
> “Serious” games techniques
> Sound and Graphics in Game
> Designing the Interface: the contact with the Player
> Games dramaturgy
> Designing virtual actors

c. Game-Engines VS PC
> Evolution of Game-Engines
> Game-Engines and PC evolution
> The Future of Game-Engines

d. Innovative and Experimental Game Techniques, Technologies and Interfaces
> Innovative interactive techniques for Games
> Innovative and Experimental Game Interfaces
> Special programs, software and programming for Games
> New audiovisual techniques and original applications in Games
> Original Game Design
> Original use of the New Media in Games


D. The Real Virtual Economy of Games

a. The emergence of a New Economy
> Net-Economy and Games
> The relation of the Games with the Cinema Industry
> Virtual and Real Game Products

b. The Geography of the Game Economy
> Games and New Markets
> Games in the East and the West
> The New Internet Geography and the Game Markets

c. The Future of the Game Economy
> Virtual Commerce and its Future
> The Future of the Game as a Product
> Legislation, Rights and Copyrights in Web-Games


Scientific Committee

The Scientific Committees for each Subject Area will be composed of eminent persons and specialists from the areas of Art, Education, Digital Production and Culture (Artists, Sociologists, Philosophers, Producers and Creators of Games, Theorists and Historians of Media, Historians and Aestheticians of Art, Curators, Computer Scientists and Economists) and will be announced soon.

For any questions please contact Nefeli Dimitriadi via email [email protected] or call us at +30 210 6420451

More information will be uploaded soon on our websites www.mediaterra.org and www.fournos-culture.gr




CALL FOR GAMES

Medi@terra 05 aims with this call for game projects to offer the opportunity to artists, independent creators, programmers and theorists from the field to show their work and at the same time to create a forum of communication, discussion and collaboration.

The projects to be submitted may be
- stand alone offline applications
- on line applications, applets (eg Flash, Shockwave, Java)
- mods & patches/ Modifications and enhancements of well known games (Quake, Unreal, Half-Life, Torque)
- machinima / films made with the use of computer games
- mobile phone games

The games submitted shall be uploaded and hosted in a web address or sent in a CD/ DVD from which they can run on a PC or Mac.
Also accepted can be the playable demos of games.

Criteria for the selection of the games will be
- their innovation in terms of development and application
- the originality of their content
- the new approaches introduced
- their aesthetic/ artistic features
- their philosophical approach

A special interest will be shown to games with sociopolitical content as well as to games that constitute tools for education and other scientific fields.

The games selected will be hosted in the exhibition of Medi@terra festival 05.

Deadline: 30 October 2005

For any questions or more information please contact Daphne Dragona via email [email protected] or call us at +30 210 6420451 .

More information will be uploaded soon on our websites www.mediaterra.org and www.fournos-culture.gr